Saturday, September 30, 2006

A Good Night’s Sleep and only Two Days Left…

This morning we all woke up around 7:45 am. We all woke up with smiles and felt refreshed. Yesterday was a rough day, the two nights on the train, and the stress of getting to embassy the day before seemed to catch up with us. Yesterday we were out of sorts, and our behavior reflected it.

Even though we were out of sorts we had a nice visit at the orphanage. We started out by meeting with the Director of the Orphanage. We formally thanked her for allowing us the privilege of bringing our daughter into our family. We told her we thought she was doing an amazing job, the kids were so loved and we were so impressed with her program, we meant every word of it. She was very kind, and told us she had been to the United States, and was very impressed with the positive atmosphere of our country and she was certain our daughter would have a healthy and happy life. We then presented her with a gift, a watch that she thanked us for. We then asked, “What can we do for the orphanage?” Rick and Pam had already given a large donation of clothes. She told us she would like some cameras and microphones. This sounds funny, but the kids like to put on shows and events. The cameras are for the kids for memories, fun events and adoption registry. Not a problem. We’re going today to purchase these items. We’ll still spend the rest of donation fund to get extra clothes, like underwear, stockings/socks and anything else we find at the bazaar that looks good. I think we’ll buy some soccer balls as well. These kids are often using bottles and rocks to play with.

The Director talked about how she really wants the playground rebuilt, since it is totally falling apart. She told us that when the group from our church visited last month they spoke about getting this done. This is a huge undertaking that will require a lot of donations. I think that www.hadassahshope.org is a great place to contribute if you would like to help with this project. We told her that we would do everything possible that we could to make that happen. I will keep you updated on the blog if you would like to contribute. I’m sure I’ll make you feel guilty enough at some point.

After our meeting with the Director we went into our daughter’s group or “Family” room. We presented gifts to the “mama’s” who take such wonderful care of the kids. They were so grateful, and were so happy for our daughter. They especially thanked us for the pictures we had taken and developed. Amazing, they were more excited for the pictures of the kids then the gifts for themselves. These women truly love these kids, and probably don’t even know what a special job they do.

As all of the niceties were going on, our daughter was listening in, and it struck her that Mama, Papa and Brat Jacob were leaving in two days. She didn’t have to say anything, she was crushed. It took us a minute to understand. Fortunately, we had brought the shoes we bought in Almaty for her, to wear on her trip home to California. When Vera explained this to her, she tried them on, and I liken it Cinderella and her slippers. Our daughter began to smile and know she would be coming home to our dom (house) meaning Mama, Papa, Brat Mitchell, Jacob, Sistra Amber and her home. That was enough, she began smiling, and we had a great day of play. She called to Kim, Mama and me, Papa. It’s a little hard to take it all in sometimes. I hate that I cannot take her home on Monday.

It is getting a little hard to play at the orphanage. As I’ve said, most of the kids are respectful of our time with our daughter, but there’s a few that won’t take “Nyet” for an answer. Our daughter gets very annoyed. She no longer wishes to share her family with kids at the orphanage. As much as we try and do for the kids, it’s often never enough. It really becomes emotionally draining.

We left the orphanage tired and a little cranky as the lack of sleep was really catching up with us. We stopped at the Gros, to pick up a new phone card, some juice boxes and more candy. We returned to the hotel to have dinner with Marcia, her daughter Sara-Marina, Sherrie and we met a new mother from Argentina named Jutka. Jutka had gone through the bonding process in July and returned for her final court date this week. We are very lucky, as the judge for the older kids has been very good about expedient court dates. I say this even though our court date will be five days longer then we had expected. Our new friends are all adopting toddlers to infants. They have a different judge who has been difficult in scheduling court dates. Most of the adopting families will have to wait at anywhere from two to four weeks after their initial 14 day bonding period. It really is a shame. These families have to decide if they can wait it out here in country or go home and return for their court date. We feel terrible for these families, as either option is difficult. When you consider these families are doing such an amazing deed, it really seems unfair to put them through such hardships. If you can make room, please pray for these families in their endeavors.

We have been so blessed to work with our adoption agency, as they have held the highest level of integrity, we’ve not had any surprises and even though we’re here a little longer then we had hoped, everything has been done very ethically. Unfortunately, that can’t be said for all of the families here. There are some agencies that have done some pretty unscrupulous things, such as demand thousands of dollars more than originally agreed upon while the families are here in country. The living arrangements are not what the families expected and the coordinators don’t speak English. Kim has told me I cannot mention the name of the guy that runs the agency, but I told her slander is only slander when you’re not telling the truth. So, I will comprise and think about the Old Testament, and what’s the guy’s name who parted the Red Sea????? And then what is the first name of the guy that wrote “War of the Worlds”???? If you are considering adopting, please do as much due diligence as you can and get referrals. We were very lucky with our adoption agency and I think the Lord every day for this.

Okay, I’m off the podium, time to go shopping see our daughter, and start packing up. Kim has already begun packing. Can you tell we’re ready to go home and see the rest of our family? I’ll be giving our daughter the key today, please pray that she will understand. Pray that she is able to get through the next few weeks and arrive safely at our Dom. Please pray that In & Out Burger is still open for business when we get home, and Starbuck’s as well….Okay, you don’t have to pray for those things, but know that we are.

Thursday, September 28, 2006

First Class Travel, Kazakhstan Style


So we are back from our whirlwind tour of Almaty, Kazakhstan. It is a nice, rainy, relaxing day in Taraz, so we are taking the opportunity to recover from our two night train trips. Wednesday night at 10, our coordinators took us to the train station and put us on what appeared to be the “first class” section of one of the old Soviet trains. Of course, for this trip, the mythical “Spanish train” was not running. I am not sure that it ever runs in real life, it seems to be just a story that gets passed around by the locals to make us hope for better transportation. That being said, though, we were pleasantly surprised when we got on the train and found that our car was made up of only two-bed compartments that seemed much cleaner than our previous trip. Of course, as soon as we got on the train, we had to pass by a huge man that had really never invested in deodorant or soap of any kind, but that was a minor inconvenience when we entered our little compartment. It was decorated in a kind of 1940’s grandmother motif, probably because I think these trains have been around since then. It was actually clean and comfortable – go figure! (Well, except for the bathroom – it was still horrible and I got to maintain my status of having the largest bladder in the country, as I am never going to use that bathroom) The train attendant was a woman this time that was really very nice to us. Now that we are experts at our 6 or 8 Russian words that we use daily, it is almost like we are natives, so we were able to communicate primitively with her. She promised to make sure we got off on the right stop, which shouldn’t be hard, because it is the LAST stop for this train, but just to be sure. We all fell asleep pretty quickly because it was so late. Jacob and I shared our bunk with him on the inside part, just to make sure he didn’t roll off. At around 3 a.m., I was so glad to have cozied Jacob up that way, as the train car lurched hard with a sound that woke us up sounding like we had hit something big. Literally, Jeff and I almost fell out of our bunks, the train stopped so hard. We looked out the window and saw that we were in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the night. The train then started lurching forward and then backwards, each time hitting something and stopping so hard we had to hold on to not get knocked out of bed. This happened over and over. Somehow Jacob managed to sleep through all of this, which was good, because I was starting to get a little panicked that we were going to have to get off the train in the middle of nowhere with no one that speaks English, in an area that our cell phone didn’t work. Luckily, though, whatever they were doing with the train worked, and in about 20 minutes we were moving again. Jeff and I were laughing about it later in the day thinking that maybe we had hit a cow or something, and the train driver just had to get it flat enough to keep moving over the tracks, hence the heavy back and forth motions. We will never know what happened, and we seemed to be the only one awake in the train car to even notice.

When we arrived in the Almaty station at 8:30 in the morning, we were prepared to wait a bit for our Almaty coordinator. This is the one that left my parents at the station when they came home. She had told our coordinator, Vera, to make sure that we waited for her this time. We just kept saying for her to actually be there on time. When we got off the train, we were pleasantly surprised to find her waiting right there at the right car for us. She really is a sweet girl, and this is her first time coordinating, so I guess we have to cut her some slack. We had arranged to have a hotel for the day in Almaty so that we could have a place to take a shower and get dressed before our US Embassy interview in the afternoon. We even thought that maybe we could get Jacob to take a little rest. She had warned us that all of the good hotels in Almaty were booked for some film festival, and that this one really wasn’t as nice. Those plans changed as soon as we drove up to the “hotel”. I use that term loosely, because it is better described as a sleaze-bag motel. Immediately we told her that we didn’t need more than an hour and a half to get ready. We didn’t know what exactly we would do with the rest of the day, but anything was better than this place. It did have shower and what looked like clean towels, but there was no way I going to let my precious son put his head on the bed to lay down. I have no idea what could have been growing there. I was so grateful that we had decided to bathe Jacob the night before, and that I had decided to wash my hair the night before. At first Jeff tried to convince me that it wasn’t that bad, but seriously, I think once his eyes got accustomed to the light, he really took a look around and agreed with me. We got cleaned up and went outside to wait for our coordinator, afraid to stay in the room and catch something awful.

We were definitely sleep-deprived and hungry, so we went for a very early lunch at a restaurant called “The American Grill”, where we had eaten on our first day in Almaty. Since we have now found out that it is literally the only place in Kazakhstan that serves quesadillas and chicken nuggets, two of Jacob’s staple meals, we knew we had to go back. We were not disappointed, and I know I enjoyed that meal more than just about any meal I have had since being gone. It actually made my mind start dreaming about McDonald’s and salads from Paradise Bakery. Ah salad…..there is no lettuce in Kazakhstan, and even if there was we couldn’t eat it because it would have been washed in the tap water. I have never craved salad like I have been lately. But I digress…. During the day, our Taraz coordinator, Vera, kept calling and checking up on us. I think she was worried we were going to get stuck at the train station, or not picked up on time for the embassy. No pressure on our Almaty coordinator, huh? I was so glad that she did, though, as we did not want anything to go wrong for this day. After lunch, we still had a lot of time to kill, so our coordinator asked us if we wanted to go for coffee. Jeff told her about my barista work in the hotel room and she said that she knew a good coffee place for us. We were both thinking, “yeah right – Nescafe instant coffee does not qualify as a good cup of coffee”. We were so gratefully wrong – they DO have coffee houses in Kazakhstan. They don’t exist in Taraz, but in the cosmopolitan city of Almaty, they most certainly do. We both got cappuccinos, and I swear, it was the best cup of coffee I have ever had, or at least the most appreciated. We both just savored the foam and the great strong coffee like never before – it was really wonderful. Oh how I miss Starbucks…..But I digress again….

After coffee, it was time to go to the embassy. We were very nervous because we thought we were going to have to show all kinds of documents and have a long interview about processing our daughter’s visa and immigration to the United States. Boy, were we surprised when the entire process took no more than 20 minutes. Most of that time was time to be escorted by security to the 17th floor where the processing takes place. We turned in our “Orphan Processing” paperwork, paid for our daughter’s visa, and then a very nice woman explained to us all about the airline security changes. She gave us a nicely printed page showing that we can now bring a little hand gel on board. Then she said congratulations and told us that when our daughter steps foot on US soil when she gets off the plane at LAX, that she will be a United States citizen. That was it – no drum roll, no hard questions, no sweat, no stress. We didn’t even have to raise our right hand or anything. After everything we have been through, it was actually kind of a let down, but I’ll take it!

We celebrated by walking across the street to the big shopping center in Almaty called Ramstore. It is actually a three story mall with a huge grocery store attached to it. On the bottom floor, they have a food court with some slightly American food, and even have a Baskin Robbins. We did a little shopping and ate an early dinner, followed by ice cream. Jacob had a chance to sit down and watch the ice skating rink that they have in the center of the little mall while he played with a new little toy he had gotten at the huge grocery store. After that, our coordinator picked us up and took us to the train station to wait for our train back to Taraz. This one left around 6, so it was still light out. We had the same train car and another two-seater compartment, which was great. We fired up the dvd player and watched “The Polar Express” while the train moved towards our Kazakhstan home. We thought that Jacob would fall asleep for the night, but unfortunately, the electrical system was a little off in the train. By a little off, I mean that all of the other compartments were able to turn the lights off and get some sleep. Ours stayed on at full blast and wouldn’t turn off for anything. This kept Jacob up, and us, and we were all really tired. Finally, around 10, we were able to communicate with the lady that secures the train car and she went up the front of the train and turned off the main light switch. By this time, though, Jacob was a little delirious, and it took a while to actually get to sleep. Once we did, though we all slept hard until our train came back to the Taraz station at 4:30 this morning. It was so nice to see the smiling faces of Vera and Medet waiting for us.

This morning we tried to get Jacob to go back to sleep as soon as we got back in the room, but no luck. We all showered early and got ready, and were definitely the first ones in the dining room when the restaurant opened at 7:30. We went for a little walk in the light rain, and then back to our room for an early nap. Jeff and Jacob are still asleep – they needed it! This afternoon we will go to the orphanage and bring our gifts for all of our daughter’s caregivers and the orphanage director. We are definitely on the final stretch. I am even thinking about packing up everything that we won’t be needing for the next three days – we are so ready to come home, we can almost taste it. We still have one big step before we get there, and that is our final court hearing. Please pray that all goes well on Monday morning at court so that we are able to get in a car for a very long (7 hour) drive to the airport, followed by about 20 hours of flying to finally get home. We really miss Amber and Mitchell so much – it was great to get to talk to them when we got back to the hotel this morning. We will be with you soon! I also want to say Happy Anniversary to my parents. Yesterday they were married 38 years – pretty impressive! We love you guys!

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Filling in the Blanks…

Kim asked me to update the blog today. She said she felt like she had left some details out regarding our hearing. I think she did a good job, but I’ll try and fill in a few of the blanks.

I was told that I would have to make a short speech at the beginning of the hearing. I wasn’t worried until our coordinator told us that the Vice-Mayor of Taraz would be conducting/overseeing the hearing. Okay, time to sweat, that’s what Werkmeisters are good at. Even Jacob was sweating. I kept going over what to say, trying to play down certain areas, and highlight others. As we entered City Hall, we waited in front of some offices. Poor Jacob had had enough. Even though I had bribed with a “Too much money Toy” if he was good, he just couldn’t make it. He hadn’t had a nap, we had been to the orphanage, the Zoom store, to buy a watch for the judge and one for the Director of the orphanage. We had also gone to the notary office. Notary’s are a thriving business here. There is at least one office on every block, and they are all busy. I believe this is another indication of a growing country. People are buying property, opening businesses, establishing partnerships etc. Keep in mind, in the old Soviet days, no one owned anything. I think it’s a great sign of progress.

Our coordinators took us to a notary office that their friend owns. It was crowded, but since we had an appointment we didn’t wait too long. Unfortunately, Jacob was not in the mood to sit still. Fortunately, two army officers came in. As the cruel father that I am, I told him that he had to be good, or we might get in trouble. I recognize I’m a terrible person, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do. Besides, it worked. Jacob sat stone still on the couch. These two army officers were escorting an older gentleman. This gentleman sat down right next to Jacob, almost on Jacob, as he was pretty old, walked with a cane and had pretty thick glasses. Jacob didn’t flinch. I need to start inviting more members of the military over to my house. Anyway, he starts talking to me in Russian. I told him Ya ni-punyamyo, Ya Amerkonski (spelling is way off), but it means I don’t understand, I’m an American. Our coordinator jumped in and told me that the man asked if Jacob was a boy or a girl. I laughed, Jacob was not amused, but maintained his stillness. Poor kid, I think Social Services will be paying me a visit soon. It turns out this guy was a retired Colonel. He said he fought the Germans in World War II, I gathered he was something of a local hero. I think he was glad to speak to an American, as our two countries fought on the same side. I told him my Grandfather (Papa) and Kim’s Grandfather (SC) had also served and fought in World War II. Then this man let’s out the loudest belch, if you’ve seen the movie Elf, this belch was similar in volume and length. Kim and our Coordinator were at the desk signing documents, uncontrollably laughing. A few minutes later he lets out an even louder and longer belch. He didn’t laugh he didn’t pardon himself, he just sat there. I had to turn away or else I would have laughed in his face. Poor Jacob just sat there, didn’t flinch. Then it was time to go, and Jacob had fallen asleep. As I carried him to the car, I wondered had the burps knocked Jacob out? If so, that was pretty darn impressive.

Sorry, back to City Hall. Jacob had had enough, too much stress, too little sleep and it was time for Jacob to melt down. I ended up carrying him, which didn’t help the sweat level. After standing around for about half an hour, which seemed to last 10 hours, we were escorted upstairs and ushered into an outer office. As Kim stated, there were about six people all speaking Russian, we passed around our little photo album, with pictures of our home, family and extended family. We were finally taken into the Vice-Mayor’s office. She had a pretty large desk, and big conference table. The table was interesting, as it had a long cut-out whole with flowers in the hole.

As we sat down, our poor little angel Jacob looks at me and says, I have to go potty. Now comes the sweat. Kim picked him up and sat him on her lap. She wasn’t having any of it, and I think she was prepared to take one for the team, and let Jacob have an accident on her during the meeting. My wife is tough. Well, Jacob held his water, but he too was fascinated by the table and went right to the floor and under the table. Okay, now more sweat. I’m trying to gear up for making my little intro speech, but it never happened. The Vice-Mayor was all business. She shot questions at our coordinator, who translated and re-translated our answers back. I don’t for one minute think it was only our answers, as our coordinators responses were long, and seemed somewhat eloquent (in Russian). After we told the panel where we worked, and how we would handle child-care, and language classes for our daughter, the questions got tough. The Vice-Mayor started asking about the first adoption, and how could this family return this wonderful little girl after a month. This family was from the north, a region that the people here refer to as we would refer to hill-billies. She asked, how would we manage this child as she may have psychological issues from these events. I simply said, “the same way we would with any of our children having issues. We will deal with it as a family, and ensure she has every available treatment that may be needed.” This seemed to be accepted. She then asked, it looks like you wanted a boy? I said, we really didn’t have a preference, as with any pregnancy, we are happy with either, just happy to have a child. Again, good answer. Kim handled the really tough questions, like child-care, and language issues. Even, will our current children be okay with sharing the attention, do they all want another sibling and can we manage all of these children. Kim’s answers were great. Jacob was also the comedic break. We were so apologetic for our child crawling under the table, as Kim said they all laughed, and were delighted to have him here.

As Kim had said, we had to show pictures of our daughter playing and laughing with us. No problem. At the end, the Vice-Mayor made a very nice speech. As Kim said, she wished us well, good health and happiness. Kim broke down and as she said what a privilege it was, and how grateful were we. I was quiet, trying not break down, I think there was dust in my eyes or something, because they were watering…That’s the story I’m going with anyway.

We’re getting ready to go the orphanage, to visit our daughter. Then it’s off to Almaty on the overnight train and a trip to the U.S. Embassy. It will be nice to break the routine, Jacob is very excited. We probably won’t be able to get on line until we return on Friday morning (Thur night California). We’ll give you the run-down when we return, of course because we’re riding on the old Soviet train.

Filling in the Blanks…

Kim asked me to update the blog today. She said she felt like she had left some details out regarding our hearing. I think she did a good job, but I’ll try and fill in a few of the blanks.

I was told that I would have to make a short speech at the beginning of the hearing. I wasn’t worried until our coordinator told us that the Vice-Mayor of Taraz would be conducting/overseeing the hearing. Okay, time to sweat, that’s what Werkmeisters are good at. Even Jacob was sweating. I kept going over what to say, trying to play down certain areas, and highlight others. As we entered City Hall, we waited in front of some offices. Poor Jacob had had enough. Even though I had bribed with a “Too much money Toy” if he was good, he just couldn’t make it. He hadn’t had a nap, we had been to the orphanage, the Zoom store, to buy a watch for the judge and one for the Director of the orphanage. We had also gone to the notary office. Notary’s are a thriving business here. There is at least one office on every block, and they are all busy. I believe this is another indication of a growing country. People are buying property, opening businesses, establishing partnerships etc. Keep in mind, in the old Soviet days, no one owned anything. I think it’s a great sign of progress.

Our coordinators took us to a notary office that their friend owns. It was crowded, but since we had an appointment we didn’t wait too long. Unfortunately, Jacob was not in the mood to sit still. Fortunately, two army officers came in. As the cruel father that I am, I told him that he had to be good, or we might get in trouble. I recognize I’m a terrible person, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do. Besides, it worked. Jacob sat stone still on the couch. These two army officers were escorting an older gentleman. This gentleman sat down right next to Jacob, almost on Jacob, as he was pretty old, walked with a cane and had pretty thick glasses. Jacob didn’t flinch. I need to start inviting more members of the military over to my house. Anyway, he starts talking to me in Russian. I told him Ya ni-punyamyo, Ya Amerkonski (spelling is way off), but it means I don’t understand, I’m an American. Our coordinator jumped in and told me that the man asked if Jacob was a boy or a girl. I laughed, Jacob was not amused, but maintained his stillness. Poor kid, I think Social Services will be paying me a visit soon. It turns out this guy was a retired Colonel. He said he fought the Germans in World War II, I gathered he was something of a local hero. I think he was glad to speak to an American, as our two countries fought on the same side. I told him my Grandfather (Papa) and Kim’s Grandfather (SC) had also served and fought in World War II. Then this man let’s out the loudest belch, if you’ve seen the movie Elf, this belch was similar in volume and length. Kim and our Coordinator were at the desk signing documents, uncontrollably laughing. A few minutes later he lets out an even louder and longer belch. He didn’t laugh he didn’t pardon himself, he just sat there. I had to turn away or else I would have laughed in his face. Poor Jacob just sat there, didn’t flinch. Then it was time to go, and Jacob had fallen asleep. As I carried him to the car, I wondered had the burps knocked Jacob out? If so, that was pretty darn impressive.

Sorry, back to City Hall. Jacob had had enough, too much stress, too little sleep and it was time for Jacob to melt down. I ended up carrying him, which didn’t help the sweat level. After standing around for about half an hour, which seemed to last 10 hours, we were escorted upstairs and ushered into an outer office. As Kim stated, there were about six people all speaking Russian, we passed around our little photo album, with pictures of our home, family and extended family. We were finally taken into the Vice-Mayor’s office. She had a pretty large desk, and big conference table. The table was interesting, as it had a long cut-out whole with flowers in the hole.

As we sat down, our poor little angel Jacob looks at me and says, I have to go potty. Now comes the sweat. Kim picked him up and sat him on her lap. She wasn’t having any of it, and I think she was prepared to take one for the team, and let Jacob have an accident on her during the meeting. My wife is tough. Well, Jacob held his water, but he too was fascinated by the table and went right to the floor and under the table. Okay, now more sweat. I’m trying to gear up for making my little intro speech, but it never happened. The Vice-Mayor was all business. She shot questions at our coordinator, who translated and re-translated our answers back. I don’t for one minute think it was only our answers, as our coordinators responses were long, and seemed somewhat eloquent (in Russian). After we told the panel where we worked, and how we would handle child-care, and language classes for our daughter, the questions got tough. The Vice-Mayor started asking about the first adoption, and how could this family return this wonderful little girl after a month. This family was from the north, a region that the people here refer to as we would refer to hill-billies. She asked, how would we manage this child as she may have psychological issues from these events. I simply said, “the same way we would with any of our children having issues. We will deal with it as a family, and ensure she has every available treatment that may be needed.” This seemed to be accepted. She then asked, it looks like you wanted a boy? I said, we really didn’t have a preference, as with any pregnancy, we are happy with either, just happy to have a child. Again, good answer. Kim handled the really tough questions, like child-care, and language issues. Even, will our current children be okay with sharing the attention, do they all want another sibling and can we manage all of these children. Kim’s answers were great. Jacob was also the comedic break. We were so apologetic for our child crawling under the table, as Kim said they all laughed, and were delighted to have him here.

As Kim had said, we had to show pictures of our daughter playing and laughing with us. No problem. At the end, the Vice-Mayor made a very nice speech. As Kim said, she wished us well, good health and happiness. Kim broke down and as she said what a privilege it was, and how grateful were we. I was quiet, trying not break down, I think there was dust in my eyes or something, because they were watering…That’s the story I’m going with anyway.

We’re getting ready to go the orphanage, to visit our daughter. Then it’s off to Almaty on the overnight train and a trip to the U.S. Embassy. It will be nice to break the routine, Jacob is very excited. We probably won’t be able to get on line until we return on Friday morning (Thur night California). We’ll give you the run-down when we return, of course because we’re riding on the old Soviet train.

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Better Days…

It’s 8:30 am and we’re going through our normal morning routine. Kim is in the shower, Jacob is watching Dumbo while doing his breathing treatment. Kim (my personal Barista) has made our Starbucks, with a paper towel filter, this is an upgrade, as we were using toilet paper for a filter. Kim has become quite proficient, and if this whole nursing thing doesn’t work out, I’m sure she could have a future at Starbucks. We just checked our emails and comments from the blog, and as always our spirits our lifted. I’m not really sure who is reading the blog, but we’re happily surprised everyday to have new comments. All of your support is so amazing. We really want to say thank you.

We went to orphanage yesterday, not really in the best of moods. God has a funny sense of humor, and really knows how to lift our spirits when we weren’t expecting it. The head worker in our daughter’s room, Inara, had asked us to take pictures of the kids. She brought in costumes for the kids in our daughters group, which they call a family. The orphanage here is pretty progressive, which doesn’t seem to fit. The children are divided into groups or families. They are divided by age, and live in a building with their own sleeping, eating, bathrooms and family room. They have tables for eating, and tables in the family room for doing art and homework. The kids all go to a public school, which is across the street from the orphanage. The school is so full, that there are two shifts. Our daughter goes from 8 am to 1 pm. The next group starts around 1 pm and goes until 6 pm. The kids seem to take school very seriously. At Grade 5, they begin learning English, so some of the older kids like to come and chat with us. We really enjoy it, and I think they do as well.

As always, I’ve fallen into a tangent. Back to the pictures, Inara is so great with the kids. It’s obvious she loves them, and really takes good care of them. She has taken it upon herself to teach the kids to dance, ballroom dancing that is. As Kim mentioned the show was pretty spectacular. To see these little orphans, waltzing across the room, in near perfect symmetry took my breath away. The Surrealism here just blows me away.
Okay, another dang tangent. So, Inara brought in these costumes for all the kids to wear. The kids were dressed as a policeman, a nurse, a chef, a carpenter, a hairstylist, a soldier and few others I can’t remember. Inara’s plan was for us to take the pictures, get them developed and she and the kids would create a collage, and it would say “You can be anything you want to be…” It’s a message for these kids, and all the kids to come.

We were and are so happy to take the pictures and get them developed. The kids were so good at posing. We went around the orphanage for effect. The nurse had her picture taken in the infirmary (Jacob go to be the patient, he was stoked), the carpenter got to go to the maintenance shop, where it appears they make and repair all of their furniture. The chef had her picture taken in kitchen. The kids had so much fun, and really loved the individual attention they all got. I promise we will post these pictures, they turned out so great. Inara was so proud of each child, and ensured each kid in her “Family” got to take part, including Jacob, who has become the mascot of sorts.

We had such a good time yesterday. After the pictures something remarkable happened. Everyday we enter the orphanage our daughter runs up and gives Kim a big hug. When we play, she holds my hand, let’s me carry her around etc, but yesterday at the end of the picture taking she ran up to me and gave me a big hug. She had never done that before. She calls me Papa, and Kim Mama, and always includes Brat Jacob in everything she does. I think the bonding is going well…

We had a nice dinner with our new friends Marcia and her daughter Sara (Jacob’s new friend) and Sherrie who is from Canada. Sherrie is a test adopter, as she is one of the first to adopt from Kazakhstan. In fact Canada doesn’t have an embassy in Kazakhstan, so she will have to go to Moscow for passports and other immigration paperwork. Her process is much more difficult, so pray for her. As her success could open the door for more families (from Canada) to come and rescue these kids.

We have court today, so Kim will complete this entry after court…Jenafer, thank you for the effort, and hopefully your lack of sleep will pay dividends for us.



Addendum AFTER our court hearing today

IT WENT WELL!!!!!After so much stress, our court hearing went very well. We were taken to a room in the municipal government building right next to our hotel. Once inside the room, we waited as about 6 different men and women in suits walked in started talking and going over paperwork. Vera, our coordinator, was with us, and they immediately started looking at pages in the document and then asking questions to her. I got very nervous because I thought that meant there was something wrong with our paperwork. After much paper shuffling and banter back and forth, we were escorted into another room with a long conference table. A nicely dressed woman proceeded over the hearing, and asked a question to Vera first. Vera then asked us if we knew that our child had been adopted and “returned” prior to this. We said yes. Then the woman asked several questions to Vera again, and we got the jist that she was reading in the earlier social worker paperwork that our child was quiet and not smiling around us. Vera jumped up with her digital camera, and Jeff took ours out of our bag. We both found LOTS of pictures to show her that now our child is laughing and smiling during the entire visit each day. She seemed pleased with that. They asked us questions like, “Who will watch her while you are at work?”, “How will you care for a child that will require so much attention?”, “How will she be able to go to school if she speaks Russian?”. Apparently we had the right answers to the questions. This was lucky because we were worried we were making a bad impression right out of the gate, since literally the minute the hearing started, Jacob said, “I have to go potty”, and then proceeded to spend the rest of the hearing under the table. When I apologized that he was not sitting in his chair and explained that he had not had a nap for the day, they actually laughed and said, “He is just a child, don’t worry!” At the end, the woman running the hearing started talking and then Vera translated. She said, “We wish you the best of luck with your life. We hope that you have a long life of good health with this child and with your whole family.” I started crying immediately just out of joy that we had passed. I told them through my tears that we are so thankful for the privilege of being a parent to such a wonderful little girl, and I promised that we would be good parents to our child. The nice thing is that two of the committee members had tears in their eyes, too, while I was crying, so I think that they understood what I was saying. I know there is so much more to add about the experience, but I am a little frazzled right now. I am sure that I will remember a lot more later, but for now, we are going out for a celebration dinner with our wonderful coordinators, Vera and Medet!

Monday, September 25, 2006

All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go


So we spent the day getting nervous about our court date and stressing over all the right (and wrong) things to say. We got dressed in our court clothes early because we were going to have a quick visit at the orphanage before court and then go straight there. Fifteen minutes before we were supposed to leave, the phone rang. It was our coordinator, Vera. Turns out our hearing has been rescheduled for tomorrow at 4:00 instead of today. No explanation. So now we are sitting here in our hotel room not really sure what to do with the rest of the afternoon, since our orphanage visit will be back to the normal time later today. Total bummer. I guess it is better to have this hearing rescheduled instead of the actual court date on the day that we need to fly home, but we are still very disappointed. We really want to come home, and this is one of the crucial steps that we have to cross to get there.

When we get to the orphanage today, we have been instructed to bring our camera, at the request of the main caregiver for our daughter’s group. She wants us to take pictures of all the kids individually dressed up in all kinds of costumes, like doctors and teachers, and whatever other profession she can think of. Then she wants us to get the pictures developed and enlarged so she can make a sort of self esteem wall for the kids. She really is such a positive role model for the kids, and I think she wants to get the message across to them that they can be anything they want when they grow up. Whatever we can do to help that happen is just fine with us.

There is not really much more to report today. Hopefully we will have better news tomorrow….

Jeff decided to add an addendum:

Bored and Disappointed…

Unfortunately we have a little time on our hands today. We’re not really in the mood to stroll around the city, see the sites or take in some local culture. As Kim wrote earlier, we were surprised and disappointed that our court date was rescheduled. We are concerned that our final court date could be pushed back as well. Sooooo we’re not in the greatest moods.

We turned on the TV and found the English CNN. It was great, we saw the U.S. Ryder Cup Team was beaten by the Euro’s, and a guy like Colin Montgomery celebrating (I really don’t like that guy). It seems strange to celebrate when you’re team is made up of ten countries and you beat one. Then we saw the U.S. Davis Cup team losses to Russia, Great. They show a tease of upcoming sports, “Football.” Okay, now that sounds good, really good, I could use some NFL or College Football highlights, heck I’d be happy with Pop-Warner highlights. So after the commercial break, they show soccer, not just a little soccer, but soccer on top of soccer. There are so many leagues it’s crazy, I really don’t have a problem with soccer, but seriously, it’s soccer.

We read a pretty good blog last night from a family that had been here a year ago. They were pretty darn funny, so I’m sharing some of their comments, as we found there comments were so true and really funny, besides. I had written about the Lay of the Land earlier, but neglected a few topics that are worth mentioning. Jacob inspired me today. As we were walking back from the market after breakfast, a short trip as we were anticipating going to court today (not that I’m bitter or anything) we were re-explaining to Jacob that side walks could also have cars on them, so watch out. He said, they should call them, “Street-Sidewalks.” On these street-sidewalks there are man-hole covers. We’ve learned early on that these are trap door man-hole covers. There like land mines, some are sturdy and some are a quick drop into the sewer. I’m not sure why they are there as there’s a little stream that runs along side the street-sidewalk, which looks way worse than any sewer. Jacob refers to this water as “Yucky Goo Water.” I believe that’s the scientific name, even if it’s not, he’s hit the nail on the head. It’s best to stay clear of the yucky goo water.

Our room is cozy, though there’s no such thing as a king size bed. Our room is a deluxe room, which is really nice, except it comes with two twin beds. Kim calls it the Ricky Ricardo beds, I personally prefer the Dick Van Dyke ensemble, but we all see the world in a different way. We try and read, our portable DVD player hooks ups to the TV, so we’ve seen a lot of kids movies, after Jacob falls asleep we try and watch a movie, or series. Last night we decided to watch Syriana. It’s a good movie about oil barons, corruption and Kazakhstan and blowing up things. Okay, how many movies are about Kazakhstan? It’s a little like living in the Twilight Zone…So we trudge on, it’s almost time to go to the orphanage, which will cheer us up. We could use some prayers, our court date delay today is really no big deal, next week, if our court date is delayed on Monday October 2, 2006 we are going to have to scramble. It will delay our coming home, which would be near devastating to all of us. I’ve been reading Hebrews, and keep re-reading Chapter 11 about faith. Throughout our whole ordeal The Lord has guided our path. We originally thought we’d be adopting in Africa, then we looked into Ukraine, but God knew where our daughter was, so here we are. A few days or a week delay won’t really hurt us. Of course, we’d rather come home today, but His plans are always better than ours. Please prayer for our safety, our patience and continue to pray for the children here, they are never far from our thoughts and prayers.

The good news today is that the Broncos won! At least that’s something.

Sunday, September 24, 2006

Lights, Camera, Action!


Well, yesterday was the big production. It was so cute!!! The girls were all dressed in costumes that resembled Belle’s yellow dress, complete with the elbow-length gloves. They were in all different colors, and of course each girl had the requisite giant white bow in her hair. For those of you that don’t know, in Eastern Europe little girls get dressed up with big white bows in their hair almost the size of their heads. It is really cute and the girls all seem to love it. I have never seen anything like it in California. We are going to have to find some of the bows to bring home. I don’t think there is any chance that I might convince Amber to put one in her hair, but our other daughter might still want one occasionally. The boys were in full suits, complete with bow ties. So very proper. Some of the older kids even performed dances and recited poetry in Russian. The older kids are so sweet. I think we have mentioned before how they really dote on the younger kids and take care of them. They helped to keep the younger kids in check during the performance. The first dance was the boy-girl waltz type of dance. Of course, our daughter really was the best. She is a born performer. Her dance partner was a little boy named Danil that is such a sweetheart. We would bring him home, too, in heartbeat if we had the chance, but he has three teenage sisters and is not available for adoption. Not that anyone ever visits him. It really does break my heart. For now we bring whatever we can for him every day, just like we do for the other children, and we pray for his future.

Back to the production, though. After the first dance we were surprised to see all the girls, including our daughter, get up in front in a line. They all had several lines to say from another Russian poem or story. Guess what? Our daughter has lungs! She belted out all of her lines for several minutes and we got it all on video. After the reading, it was time for the girls to do their cheerleading/songleading routine – the one with the hip swinging. Once again, our daughter was of course the star – not that we have become the least bit biased. I’m just sure she was the best even though I couldn’t take my eyes off of her and watch any of the other girls! Once the show was over, the kids all changed and we got to go play outside. We teased our daughter with our coordinator that we actually have her on film talking a whole bunch. She started giggling because she knows that we know she is really just playing a game about not talking very much. The way I see it, that is the only thing she has any control over in her life right now. Even though she loves spending time with us and comes running to hug us when we get there, she is still scared, so this little game is okay for now.

We have definitely gotten to know the city well. Pretty much every place except the orphanage is within walking distance, provided we pay attention during the human Frogger game when we cross the street. Actually we have to pay attention at all times, because there doesn’t seem to be a distinction between streets and sidewalks. We found the great amusement park and went back this morning. The park is so beautiful and goes on for what seems like miles. It is filled with shady trees and fun little rides. The carousel looks like one of the antique tin toys. Today we even got to ride on a tractor that pulled tiny train cars and went all over the park. At around 50 cents a ride, we could spend all day there. We have had so much fun getting to know the other adoptive mom, Marcia, and her daughter Sara that are in the room across the hall from us. The kids have such a great time together, and we took them there today to play. I think we may have to make it a daily activity, as it is even better than the nightly bounce house party. Marcia and I were laughing that we have become such locals here that people actually do confuse us for Russian women. We now get approached all the time on the street with people asking us the time or something else in Russian. When we look back at them with blank looks and say “Sorry, Pangliske”, they look totally surprised.

Yesterday afternoon there was a huge crowd in the town square outside. There were hundreds of people all in track suits with numbers pinned to their chests. We found out it was the “Taraz Day of Health” and there was going to be some sort of race. It looked just like the start of a marathon, until you looked closer and saw that more than half of the race participants were smoking, and didn’t look like they were going to put their cigarettes out for the race. The other half were eating ice cream or drinking sugar sodas. So much for good health, but at least it’s a start! We also found a great little bakery with an upstairs tea room that does not allow smoking or alcohol, so it is always empty. They make great banana milkshakes that Jacob loves, and wonderful pastries. It makes for such a nice morning to walk to the bakery, get something yummy and sit and sip tea and milkshakes while we watch all the people walk outside.

Tonight we are going to have dinner at the Turkish restaurant again for pizza and kebobs. We had our coordinator, Vera, write out in Russian exactly what we wanted to order, just to make sure there aren’t any communication breakdowns. Mitchell, I almost asked her to write the Russian word for “Turkish delight”, but I don’t think they have it. We are going to be joined by Marcia and Sara, and another adoptive mom that is here from Canada. We won’t know what to do with ourselves with a table full of English-speaking people. I’m sure we will cause quite a spectacle, except for the fact that we are eating at 5 and no one goes to restaurants here before 8. I hope the restaurant is open! Tomorrow is our guardianship hearing. Jeff will have to give some sort of speech, we have been told, and there will be a lot of questions as to why we are adopting, why Kazakhstan, why Taraz, and so on. Hopefully we will answer the questions right. We think it is going to be fine, but you just never know, so we are not letting our guard down. Please pray for us if you happen to be awake at 3 am Monday morning California time, as that is when we will be at the hearing. Hopefully we will have good news for you tomorrow! For today, though, we continue our Groundhog’s Day existence of the same thing everyday at the same time.

Mitchell, I hope your football game went great, and Amber, I hope your first day in your new class on Tuesday goes well, too. I can’t wait to hear all about it! I love you more than you could ever imagine, and I can’t wait to come home to you two sweeties!

Saturday, September 23, 2006

Another Day, Another Tenge…

We had a great day yesterday (Friday). Time is a little confusing here as we are thirteen hours ahead of California time (Pacific Standard Time). After breakfast we went for our morning walk. We decided to walk a little further and go to the “Gros.” The Gros is a large supermarket. There are many small markets on almost every block, but the Gros is an actual chain, similar to Ralph’s or Safeway. The nice thing about the Gros is that it has an electronics store upstairs and a sporting goods store downstairs. We needed to get a new I-Card or phone card that is the best way to call home. At least from a price stand point. We can use the phone from our hotel room, and the card works pretty well. We had looked at international cell phones, but Kazakhstan is not your standard cell coverage country, and it would have been expensive. The I-Cards are great, and easy to use.

Sorry, I go off on too many tangents. The walk to the Gros (great name – pronounced gross) is about two miles, which Jacob can walk halfway, I end up carrying him on my shoulders the rest of the way. It’s a pretty good exercise program for all of us. On the road to the Gros is a large park with amusement park rides. We promised Jacob we’d stop and ride some of the rides on the way back from the Gros, if he was good. Meaning, he won’t break anything in the store. He did it, we got a new I-Card, and some CD Rom discs for downloading pictures from our camera. We have some amazing pictures, and video. Our daughter loves to take pictures and she took some really good pictures of the kids at the orphanage. As we’ve said before, we will post pictures after our court date. I’m sure we are a little conservative, but after our scare the other day, I don’t think we can be too conservative.

Back to the walk, as we entered the park, we found it was a huge park. We found a small outdoor amphitheater where a performance was going on. It looked like the local school was hosting, they had dancing, singing and stories. Of course we couldn’t understand any of it, but we were able to get the idea. The costumes were amazing, the dancing was both very traditional to very modern and enjoyable for all of us to watch. The kids put on a great performance. Jacob was enthralled. I was so bummed we didn’t have our video camera with us.

After the show, we went to the rides. Only a few were open, and no one spoke English. The woman working the Carousel was so nice, she recognized we were stupid Americans and let Jacob ride for free. I finally figured out where to buy the tickets, and after a lot of crazy communication figured out how much the rides cost. Each ride was 40 Tenge, or about 15 cents. We walked back to the hotel, and tried to take a nap. Jacob wasn’t having any of it. Unfortunately, he’s at the age where he’s almost outgrown naps. So it can be a struggle at times.

Our visit to the orphanage was great. It was low key, and Jacob and our daughter played so well together. The orphanage kids want so badly to play with us, I like to think it’s because I’m so much fun, but it may have something to do with the candy and cookies I always seem to carry with me. The kids try to respect our time with our daughter, but the allure of treats and play just gets to be too much. All the kids seem to love to be thrown in the air, spun around etc. That seems to be my job, and although each morning my back is sore, I enjoy playing with these wonderful children.

There’s one little boy, we learned he’s four almost five years old. He’s about half the size of Jacob, and Jacob’s age. His name is Loula, which is a Kazak name I’m sure I’m not spelling correctly. He has crossed eyes and although he’s by the far the smallest kid at the orphanage, he’s fearless. There is a half dome jungle gym built for climbing. All the kids including Jacob love to climb it. The other day I saw two of the older boys (probably around 12 in appearance, but really 15 or 16) climbing to the top and standing on 4 inch by 4 inch square at the top. It was quite a feat. That is until I saw the little cross eyed boy climb up yesterday. He flew to the top and stood up there like it was no big deal. Even more remarkable was how he climbed back down. Keep in mind he can’t be more than 30 inches tall. He literally slides down and throws his weight like an experienced rock climber. I have an affinity with this boy, Loula as I was born cross eyed as well, I wonder if someone will ever straighten his eyes, as someone did for me. He has a sister that we met the first day who is hearing impaired, and signs pretty well. I wished I’d learned more sign language from my friend Jim Brewington. These two kids are not available for adoption as their grandmother won’t give up the family birth right. Of course she doesn’t visit, and both children have to be adopted at the same time if they were available as siblings are required to stay together in adoptions here. If I could I would bring Loula home with our daughter, but it’s not in the cards. I can go on and on about all of these kids, so many stories, so many that I think, we could help this one or that one. Unfortunately, we can’t. But we can create a great home for our daughter, and that will have to be enough. So, I keep bringing candy and cookies, I’ll toss these kids around until I can’t stand up straight, and hope it brings them some happiness.

After our visit we took our coordinators to dinner at the Turkish restaurant that not only has an English menu, but also pizza! Our coordinators are so great, I wanted to take them in appreciation for all that they have done for us. We had a great time, and ate Pizza, that was pretty good, and kabobs that were just fantastic. Mitchell, it wasn’t quite Bob’s Kabobs, but pretty close, and no, they didn’t have Turkish delight like in Narnia.

We can’t wait to come home and see Amber and Mitchell. Pam and Rick have been so awesome. They are now back in California, and pick up Amber and Mitchell from school and make sure they call us with the kids every chance they get. It really lifts our spirits. We miss them more than you will ever know. I am dreading leaving our daughter behind. I fear that she will think we’re abandoning her, as so many others have. I came up with a plan, and Caryn Goacher helped inspire it. She had recommended we give our daughter something to remember us. So, I’ve been thinking what should I give her, something to return to us, so she knows we expect her to come home. I had thought of leaving my watch, or sunglasses, but none of those items seemed right. Then it hit me, I’m leaving her a house key, not just any key, but the key to our house. Please pray that this will be enough to get her through the month before she comes home. We will also send letters to her, via email that our coordinator promised they will bring to her and read them.

I want to thank you all again for your kind emails and comments, we love to read them. Feel free to send messages to Jacob, as he loves to hear them and respond. Although, he’s stolen a joke from his aunt Caryn, so you may get a booger joke in response.

Today we get to go to the orphanage a little early, as the kids are putting on a big production for a group of German “sponsors” that come twice a year and help out the orphanage. This is the performance that our daughter has been rehearsing for, with the dance routines. We have our video camera and digital camera charged and ready for what is likely to be a great show! I don’t remember if we talked about our court date and return home yet, but we were able to get our official court date scheduled for Monday, Oct 2. We will leave immediately from our town and drive all the way to Almaty to catch our night flight home. We will be home as scheduled on Tue October 3 – Amber and Mitchell get ready for the biggest hugs you have ever had!!!!!! (That part’s from Mommy)

Friday, September 22, 2006

A Little Bit Stressful, But All Is Well

As Jeff mentioned in yesterday’s blog, we were a little under the weather yesterday and spent the entire day in our hotel room just resting. It was actually kind of nice to get a break from the multi-mile walk that we do each morning. Everyone is feeling better today, especially since I started taking the antibiotics that we brought with us. We have been spending each evening at dinner with an adoptive mom and her 3 year old daughter that came into town this week. It has been so much fun for Jacob to have a playmate and to feel like a normal kid here. They have been spending the last few days in an apartment, but are moving into the hotel room across the hall from us today. Jacob can’t wait. It has been nice for us to have someone else here in the same situation as us. This is her second adoption, so she has been a wealth of knowledge for us, and the English-speaking company is nice, too!

When our coordinator picked us up yesterday afternoon, she told us that she had found a problem with our child’s paperwork. Just when we had lulled ourselves into thinking that the rest of the trip was a slam dunk, we were told that our child’s birth father was still listed in the paperwork. We were told that means that we would have to either find a way for the prosecutor to not mention in during court (not likely), or we would have to find the father and get him to sign off on the adoption. We were flabbergasted because we thought we had been told from the beginning that both parents’ rights had been severed. Our coordinators dropped us off at the orphanage and told us that they were going to go find the judge for our case to discuss it and would pick us up at the end of the visiting time. We were both panicked, because that meant that best case scenario, we were looking at a much extended visit, and worst case scenario that the adoption might not go through after coming all this way. Our coordinators are usually very easy-going and positive, and they seemed very distressed by all of this, so we really feared the worst. We tried to focus on having a good time during our visit, but we were so distracted that it was a little hard.

The boxing competition was just winding down, and there were still lots of other kids around the orphanage. The prior day it had been entertaining to be the “Americanski” spectacle for all of these kids. Today, we were definitely not in the mood. We had to figure out a way to get the extra kids away from us, which was not easy, but eventually they understood what we were trying to communicate. I think we hurt their feelings. We were both silently praying during the entire visit. God has been in control of this whole process, and we knew that things would work out as they are supposed to, but still, it is definitely in our nature to worry. We got a little reprieve when our child’s caregiver came outside to get her and motioned for us to follow. When we got back to her group room, the kids were all lined up and ready for something. We had been told earlier in the day that a humanitarian group from Germany that visits the orphanage twice a year to visit with the kids was coming on Saturday, and the kids have a big production planned for them. We were instructed to sit down on the couch while the kids rehearsed for the show. First the kids broke into boy-girl couples for a traditional Kazakh dance that kind of resembles the Royal Ball in Cinderella. Of course, our child was the best dancer and the most graceful, or at least I think she was because I wasn’t watching anyone else! For the second act, just the girls performed a dance that was kind of a cross between a cheerleading routine and an aerobics routine. Our daughter was in the center and was actually the lead dancer. Let me tell you, this girl can swing her hips so well, she would make Elvis blush. She’s really got rhythm! We’ll have to put a lid on that, or we are in trouble when she is a teenager.

After the rehearsal, it was already about 15 minutes after the time that our visiting was supposed to be over, but our coordinators still had not come to pick us up, so we went outside. We found them talking to the director, and we got even more worried. When we caught up to them, one of them was on the phone, and we asked our other coordinator what had happened at the court with the judge. She said, “Let’s wait until Medet (the other coordinator) is off the phone so we can talk about it. I am pretty sure that my heart stopped beating right then and there. Medet got off the phone and came over to us looking very serious. Vera, our coordinator, looked at us and then smiled. She said that the part about our child’s father still having parental rights was wrong, and that they had found paperwork showing that his rights had been severed, too – phew. My heart started again while they told us about the rest of our journey. They were able to get a court date in time for us to get home on Oct 3 as planned, but what a journey it is going to be. It looks like we will have our guardianship hearing this Monday Sept 25 at 4:00. The outcome of that hearing will determine the court’s outcome. We do not expect any problems with this. Then next Thur or Fri, we will take the dreaded train to Almaty to attend an Embassy interview at the US Embassy. We will only be there during the day, and Vera will be traveling with us to make sure that everything goes smoothly. At the end of the day, we will return again on the train – that’s right folks, two train trips in 24 hours. Whoo hoo. Jacob is very excited. We will be back to spend the weekend in our region and will have our court hearing on Monday Oct 2 at 10:00. Shortly after that is over, we will have to hire a driver to drive us all the way back to Almaty so that we can make our flight which leaves that night (actually Tue morning) at 3:20 am. Then we will be home to wait out the mandatory waiting period before our child comes home. And to think, I thought this was going to be an easier way to have another child…..All worth it, though, and we will be home soon. 10 days to be exact, but who’s counting!

This morning we took a long walk to the amusement park and found a big gathering in the open air amphitheater. There were more than 100 people there, mostly school-age performing in some sort of talent show. It looked like all of the different cultures were represented in the acts, and I really wish we had brought our camera for it. Definitely not something you see every day. Jacob got to go on a few rides and all was well. Hopefully today’s visit to the orphanage will be a lot less stressful!

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

The Lay of the Land….

Jacob woke up with a bit of a sore tummy. I won’t go into too many details, let’s just say his tummy hurts. We decided not to go for a walk this morning. We usually go exploring the city after breakfast. We’ve found all kinds of wonderful and some not so wonderful shops, people, buildings etc.

After breakfast this morning I ran across the street to get a few more juice boxes and some bottles of water. I was thinking as I was playing human Frogger (an old video game) going across the main street that our friends back home might want some insight into our new world.

First and foremost, never drink the tap water. We are constantly carrying bottled water, from small hand held bottles to big jugs. On the surface that seems pretty easy until you think about things like brushing your teeth, ice in your drinks and shaving. We use the bottle water for brushing our teeth. No ice no matter how safe they say it is. Shaving is a challenge here. I was tempted to purchase an electric shaver here with the proper plug. Instead, I shave in the sink, careful to keep the water away from my mouth, and using antibacterial hand gel as aftershave. The anti-bacterial hand gel is a must, we try and carry it everywhere. As bad as the tap water is, some of the restrooms we’ve encountered are down right scary, especially at the orphanage. Jacob has had to use the bathroom a few times while were at the orphanage, and we’re pretty sure that’s why his tummy is sore this morning.

Eating can be a challenge, as our Russian is pretty bad. We have to find places with English menus. Another tall order, fortunately, our hotel has a wonderful little restaurant with an English/Russian menu. The staff is awesome. Most of them don’t speak English. They try and take care of us, and love Jacob. They have asked what he likes to eat, and have tried to make special dishes for him. There are two Sisters Tatiana and Valentina who work as waitresses. They are both so nice. We taught them how to make cheese fries, in broken English and Russian it was harder than you think. The servings are huge at breakfast. We have stockpiled food in our room. We brought peanut butter and usually make sandwiches for lunch. There isn’t peanut butter here. We brought some to Dasha and she loved it, she had never had it. We even have a small coffee pot, thankfully, Kim brought a few pounds of Starbucks coffee and we enjoy two cups in the morning. The restaurant has a good menu for dinner, and I tried “Forcemeat” or horse meat last week. To be honest, I didn’t realize what I was eating until it was too late. Apparently this is a popular food here. It was pretty oily, but not bad.

We have a good size hotel room. Two twin beds (we’ve pushed together), I feel a little like Dick Van Dyke, Kim likes to think of us as Ricky and Lucy. Jacob has a large crib bed that he really doesn’t fit in, but he can step in and out of. We have a really good air conditioning and heating unit in the room. The bathroom is nice, and the shower has hot water (most of the time). Jacob and I shower together, and know not to drink the water. All in all our room is nice and we are comfortable.

As I mentioned earlier, crossing the street is a challenge. In America, pedestrians always have the right of way. Here it’s the opposite cars always have the right of way, even if they are driving on the sidewalk, wrong side of the street or running a red light.. Everyone’s horn seems to work really well. Crossing a street can be a little tricky, heck the cars often drive on the side walk, so I’m constantly keeping an eye out. The horns and drivers have been my personal challenge. We’ve had a few cars beep at us, and my first reaction is to want to give them the one finger wave, and explain to them that that’s not very nice, especially with my four year old in tow, maybe using some of my old navy speak to make sure they understand the point. On more than one occasion I’ve been tempted to pull a few drivers out of their car and bounce them off the pavement. God is testing me, and I seem to have everything in check. Pray for my patience.

The cars here are such a mix. There are Toyotas, Hondas, some names and styles I’ve never seen. Generally the care are smaller then the cars in the U.S., and there are a lot of micro-buses. These are like early versions of mini-vans and VW buses from the 1960s. There are a lot of the old 4 door coupes left over from the Soviet days. These cars look right out of the old James Bond movies, not the cool sports cars but the coupes the KGB chased 007 around in. These KGB roadsters seem to be made of iron, we’ve seen a few wrecks where these cars seem to do more damage than they receive. Some of the cars here have the steering wheel on left side and some on the right side of the car. They do drive on the right side of the road, at least in theory. Emissions controls don’t really exist, so the exhaust smell is pretty strong. The traffic laws and lanes seem to be a suggestion and not a requirement. I’m so glad we have such an awesome driver I wouldn’t want to get behind wheel here.

We have become pretty proficient at shopping. As we rarely find any English speaking merchants, we use our little bit of Russian and the merchants all have calculators that they use to show us what things cost. I’m sure I’m paying the “stupid American” price for goods, but things are relatively inexpensive here. The local currency is the Tenge, pronounced Tan-gay. I jokingly refer to it as monopoly money, so I’m not completely sure what we pay for things. Rick figured that 5000 Tange was equal to about 40 dollars. I hate long math. Tipping is confusing. The restaurants usually add a 5 or 10 percent gratuity. I tend to over tip so I leave a little extra. We tip the hotel staff for bringing up the laundry, but they seem surprised.

The people here are so interesting. It’s truly a melting pot of Asian and Eastern European culture and ethnicity. As you walk down the street nobody makes eye contact or smiles. I must look pretty silly saying hello in Russian and smiling. I’m sure they think I ride the short bus. The people seem to have big hearts however, they take such good care of Jacob, and all the children seem to be treasures to them. The orphanages are busy because people can’t afford to feed their children, or pay for heat in the winter. It’s sort of the ultimate sacrifice. I believe they love their children, and know they don’t have the means to care for them. So, to ensure the kids survive they turn them over to the state. I can’t imagine what that would be like, I have to thank the Lord everyday for my blessings. It’s so far from reality in the U.S. that I have to take a moment to take it all in. I pray for these people, this nation is so young, the people want to move forward, break away from the old Soviet bonds. From a historic perspective, Kazakhstan is like a young United States breaking away from Great Britain’s rule. I hope they are blessed with wise rulers as we were in our countries early years.

Two Blogs for the Price of One


Normally we blog the prior day’s events right before we leave for our 4 pm orphanage visit, but today we had an early visit, so I will get to tell you about two days’ worth of activities. We have had two wonderful days with our child. Yesterday when we arrived at the orphanage, we went with our coordinator to the social worker’s office first. She has already prepared all of the necessary documents for the adoption, much quicker than anticipated. It appears that the orphanage is very much in favor of this adoption, and they are happy that we are there – phew! When we were going through the paperwork with our coordinator, we were surprised to find out that our daughter is half German, half Russian – she really IS a Werkmeister!! When we went into her group room to start our visit, we were greeted with the biggest smile we have ever seen, followed by the quickest run to us and a hug that nearly knocked me over – from a child that weighs less than Jacob! She had the pink rubber bands in her hand that I had used to put her hair up in little pigtails the day before. She handed me the rubber bands and the brush that we had brought for her, and asked me to put her hair up for her again. She really likes to have her hair brushed and I think it made her feel like a princess to have someone actually put her hair up. I was more than happy to oblige! Once we finished her hair, I asked her if she would like to go outside and play (in English). She shook her head “yes” with the cute little “I Dream of Jeanie” nod that she has perfected. I told her to go get her shoes (again in English) and she ran to her locker and put her shoes on. She definitely understands a lot more English than we originally thought she did.

Once we got outside, we had the luxury of the whole play yard to ourselves. Normally, there are children all around, but we got lucky this time. She started out asking for the camera and took picture after picture. After a while, though, an amazing thing happened. The little girl that has been attached to my side since we got here decided to branch out and initiated a “chase” game with Jacob. To see the two of them running and squealing was fantastic. They shared all the snacks we brought, too. Our child would go to the backpack and pick out 4 gummy worms. Then she would run over to Jacob and give one to him, followed by one for daddy and mommy. She and Jacob found a piece of play equipment that they could climb up. Jacob was the first to yell to Daddy to catch him while he jumped down. That was all it took for our child to want to do that, too. She figured out immediately that Daddy is the fun one in the family, and we spent the next hour and a half watching the two kids run up the equipment and wait to jump into Daddy’s arms. We decided to use this opportunity to bribe her to speak a little more, since she had done it the day before during play time with Daddy. Before Jeff would let each child jump, he would say “Say Papa”, or “Say Mama”. She would do it every time and then laugh as she jumped down. We would tell Jacob to practice Russian words, which is pretty cute, too! Once she got the hang of the easy words, we decided to make it a little harder. “Say Babushska”, “Say Diedushka” (grandma and grandpa) – she said those easily. Okay, let’s see what else we can come up with. “Say sestra” (say sister) – guess what she said then? She said “Sestra – Amber”, with a rolling “r” at the end of Amber. She knows her siblings names by heart already! We followed it with “Say brat” (say brother) – she said “Brat Mitchell” and “Brat Jacob”. Wow!!! Then she wanted to look at the family pictures in Daddy’s wallet again to go over her family again. We decided to try something even harder. “Say Werkmeister”. Guess who can say that perfectly, too? What a perfect day. To think, I was actually worried that this child would have such a hard time attaching to us that she wouldn’t talk to us for the entire bonding period. It turns out God is bigger than my fears, and had a plan for this all along. J At the end of the visiting time, something else happened. Our child normally kind of shuts down as soon as she sees that it is time for us to go. We are used to that now, and know that actually that is a good sign for bonding and attachment. On this day, though, Jacob actually started crying when it was time to go. He has developed a bond with his new sister already, and did not want to leave her. Very hard, but also very healthy.

Last night we finally got to live out Jacob’s Kazakhstan dream. After dinner we went out to the town square and joined the “bounce house party”. We hadn’t made it out late enough yet before this, and Jacob was so excited. Of course, there was no one around that spoke English, so we communicated with our hands mostly to negotiate getting Jacob into the bounce house slide. Jeff held out his hand full of different denominations of tenge coins and just asked “how much”. The woman picked out a few coins and off Jacob went. That kind of fun is the same in any language. The whole square is kind of like a country fair each night. Not only do they have the bounce houses, but there are also rows of motorized mini cars for the kids, skate rentals and booths that are decorated brightly for taking pictures. We went to the giant Shrek stand and Jacob was lifted up and placed in the crook of Shrek’s arm. We have a pretty funny picture that makes Jacob look like he is only about 4 inches long.
Today we got to have our visiting time much earlier than normal. The orphanage was hosting a huge junior boxing event for the whole country. They had been working very hard the day before to get everything cleaned up for what was to be hundreds of people visiting from all regions of the country and even neighboring country Uzebekistan. Boxing is very big in Kazakhstan, and many people do not know that the famous “Klitchko” brothers in the world of professional boxing were actually born in Kazakhstan when it was part of the former Soviet Republic. The boxing competition was for children that appeared to be ages 5-16. They were all so very proud of their regions. The orphanage was renting space to the boxers in order to make money and get some recognition. As a result, we got to go earlier than normal. We arrived at the orphanage just before our child returned from school. It was so fun to see the surprise on her face when she walked up in her school uniform, hair still up in the pink rubber bands. She ran into the room and gave us huge hugs again. She had to be coaxed by her caregiver to return to the dining room to eat lunch and change her clothes. There is no way that a bite of food crossed her lips in the amount of time she was gone! Luckily, she knows we bring food and juice for her every day, so no big loss! We went outside and watched some of the boxing – a little difficult to watch small boys hitting each other, and then start crying when they realized they had lost the match, but fascinating all the same. Many of the visiting children were fascinated by the “Americanskis”. They kept asking our coordinator to explain what we were doing there. They asked, “Did they come all the way from America just to watch the boxing?” No, she explained, they are here to adopt. They all just doted over Jacob, each one so surprised to find out that he is only 4. They all thought he was at least 6. Children just are not very big here, it turns out. They also said that this was the first time they had ever seen real live Americans in person. A big group of them followed us around everywhere, just to hear us talk. Jeff gave them some American coins, probably around 20 cents total. They were so excited and ran around the other children shouting, “American tenge”. Kind of humbling. We had a much longer visit than normal today, which was great for us, bad for Jeff’s back, as we continued the jump and catch game. I’m sure he doesn’t really mind. Our roles have definitely been defined, just the way they already were for Amber, Mitchell and Jacob. Jeff is the fun one, and I am the comforter. When the Kazakh children started bothering our child, she ran to my side and clung to me. When they were gone, she just wanted to play with Daddy. At the end of our time today, the caregiver came to get our child to tell her it was time to do her homework – bummer. We expected the usual shut down, but did not expect the huge, heaving sobs that followed. Poor little thing. I know that it is a good sign, but it is heartbreaking to leave her every day. Of course, Jacob cried, too, and today so did Mommy. All we want is to get her out of there. We did get good news that it looks like we may be able to get a quick court date. Nothing is for sure, but we could really use prayer for this. As much as we enjoy our time here with her each day, my heart just aches to be home with Amber and Mitchell. The quicker we get to court, the quicker we get home and the quicker the clock starts ticking for when she will come home, too.

A lot of people have asked us through e-mail and in the comments section how they can help out the orphanage. There is not an easy way to do that here, as there is no guarantee that money donated or even toys would actually get to the kids. Many people have told us to just spend a certain amount of money on the kids and they will pay us for it when we return. Instead of that, there is an organization that was started by the children's pastor and his wife from our church that is dedicated to helping to fund adoptions for families that would otherwise not be able to adopt, as well as assisting orphanages with much-needed projects. Just last month, they traveled to Kazakhstan to build a playground and assist one of the orphanages. They were actually invited to the orphanage that we are at in the hopes of assisting them, too. All of this requires funding. If you would like to help orphans in Kazakhstan in a way that would most definitely get to the children, please visit www.Hadassahshope.org. Hadassah's Hope is the name of the organization, and on Friday November 3 they are having their first annual benefit dinner, complete with a comedian, silent auction and dinner. Tickets are $100 a couple, and can be purchased through the website. I can't find the exact link to tickets, but if you hit the "contact us" link and send an e-mail to Elizabeth, I am sure she will hook you up with tickets. Who knows? You may even get to meet our wonderful coordinator Vera at the event!

Monday, September 18, 2006

What was that she said.....oh yeah, PAPA!

Yesterday was amazing! Everday we arrive at the orphanage we never know what to expect. We had a great day on the day before, but we've had a few days with one step forward and two steps back. Yesterday was 100 steps forward.

When we arrived, the kids were awake and playing. When our daughter saw us, she didn't run away, she didn't lower her head, she smiled big and waved to us. She was looking at us, interacting with us, smiling for pictures with us and seemed happy to be with us.

Our coordinator had to leave for a while, so Kim asked our Daughter if she wanted to go outside? She nodded yes. Wait a minute, Kim asked in English and she understood. We went outside, and played. We all played together. Our daughter was playing directly with Jacob. She wanted me to give her Gummy Worms, it seems I always carry candy for her and the kids at the orphanage. I would try and bribe her to say Dah, or Mama or Papa, she was stubborn, and wouldn’t give in. Of course I would give in and give up the candy. I think I’m in trouble when this child becomes a teenager.

She enjoyed climbing the equipment, and having me throw her in the air, spin her around and catch her when she would jump to me from the top of the playground equipment. I was doing both for her and Jacob, and I’m not going to lie, my back was a little sore this morning (worth every ache).

Every time she wanted me to do something she would make hand signals, nod her head or tap her foot on the ground. I would say, say Papa, she would shake her head “no” huh, did she understand what I was saying in English?
Finally, she could see I was getting tired, but she really wanted me to pick her up and twirl her around. Then it happened, she said “Papa” I couldn’t move for a moment. All of the sudden I wasn’t so tired. I picked her up and spun the child around, I said say Mama, and she did. We continued to play, at one point she was laughing so hard and wanted me to stop spinning, she said, “nyet, nyet, no more, nyet.”

What a great day. Kim and I have come to the conclusion that our little daughter has been holding back more than just her voice. She understands some English.

When our driver showed up about 15 minutes early, our daughter’s smiles went away. Kim said, “We still have time to play, we’re not leaving yet.” She smiled and continued to play. When it was time to go, she became very sad, and we were as well. We told her we’d back tomorrow, and that seemed to help. I can’t wait to get this part of the adventure over with, I can’t wait to bring my daughter home and really start to have fun. This little girl has no idea what a wonderful world a waits her.

I want to end this by thanking all of you for your kind emails, comments and prayers. It really has gotten us through some tough times. Some of you have asked how you can help the kids here. There is a non-profit group called Hadassah’s Hope. We’ll post the contact information. The group originated from our church, and has already done some amazing things in Orphanages in Kazakhstan. As I’ve said, we intend to buy a lot of clothes, shoes and jackets for our orphanage. The good news is that kids clothes are relatively inexpensive here, and with the money Rick and Pam have contributed, and what we have we’ll be able to help. I can’t think of a better way to spend our money. Please don’t feel obligated to contribute, we just wanted to respond to those who felt the desire to help these kids out. As we progress, I’ll probably make you feel guilty…just kidding.


Today’s Blog, Part Two: Rick and Pam’s Excellent Adventure

In addition to the wonderful events that Jeff talked about above, a few other interesting things happened today. Most importantly, we got to talk to Amber and Mitchell through the yahoo instant messenger with video. We could hear their sweet voices perfectly clearly and see their great big smiles. They couldn’t really hear us, though, so we disconnected and just talked on the phone. What a great way to start the day!!!!

Remember how I said that my parents had probably completed the worst part of their journey yesterday by getting off the Soviet train? Perhaps I spoke too soon. They did make it through the train just fine, and arrived at the train station in Almaty at around 8:30 in the morning. They got off the train and waited for the Almaty coordinators to pick them up. They were expecting them to be there at the train station, as that was what we were told to expect by them. Well….they waited and waited, and no coordinators. After about half and hour when the train station was deserted, they decided to take a taxi to the hotel that they were told they would be staying at for the day, the same one we stayed at before. Since none of the taxi drivers speak English, and they didn’t know the Russian name of the hotel, they pulled out their digital camera and showed the driver the picture of all of us standing in front of the hotel – good thinking! The driver took them to the hotel and dropped them off. They went inside and were more surprised to find that, no, there was no reservation for them there, and that the hotel was full. They were directed to a hotel next door where they were able to find a room. Still no word from the coordinators. We had given them our cell phone number to call us from the hotel and tell us how the train ride had been. My mom called in the morning and I was laughing when I picked up the phone waiting to hear some war stories about the train. Instead she told me that they had not been picked up or even found the coordinators yet. They were borrowing the cell phone of the guy that worked at the internet café at the hotel they thought they were going to stay at. I hung up and called our coordinator here, who sighed a huge sigh of relief when she heard that I had heard from my parents.
It turns out that she had been in contact all morning with the Almaty coordinators who were frantically searching the city for my parents. They didn’t want to call me yet and scare me until they knew what was going on. They had showed up late to the train station, after my parents left, and they had feared the worst. They had sent someone to look for them at the train stops before Almaty, and filed a missing persons report with the police. Turns out they also had announcements blaring over the loudspeakers at the train station in English asking for Richard and Pamela Goacher to please report to the train station. They also told our coordinator here that while they told her initially that they were going to have my parents stay at the same hotel in Almaty, the hotel was full and they made reservations elsewhere. I told our coordinator where they were staying and they were quickly found, praise God. My parents were laughing about the whole adventure, but seriously, it could have been a really bad situation. Hopefully they were taken to the airport at midnight last night. I haven’t heard otherwise, so they must be on their way back home now.

Sunday, September 17, 2006

She Has A Voice!!!!!!

Well, after being so down the last couple of days, I think we were due for something uplifting. Yesterday we really had a great day. Our coordinator took us to the bazaar - kind of like the Soviet swap meet that goes on for several city blocks. We found all kinds of great things and really only saw a fraction of what they have. We will have to go back to get some more great things to take home. They sell everything from electronics to food, and everything in between. There were several aisles devoted to just toys, and others for just shoes (my favorite). We found some cute jeans for our child, as well as a warm coat for her and an umbrella that she had asked for. Jacob found an umbrella that he liked, too - it has giant cartoon spiders on it. He is so happy that we woke up this morning to some more rain - looks like we will be spending the day in it testing out the new umbrella.

When we got to the orphanage, we were expecting more of what we had experienced each of the prior days - quiet little girl, little eye contact, and no talking. Something was different when we entered her group room, though. I saw her in the corner smiling and laughing with one of her little friends. When we walked in, her friend yelled to her "Mama and Papa!". Our child had a huge grin on her face and took off running into the kids' bedroom. I went in after her, and she was grinning from ear to ear - clearly just playing possum with us! I brought in the new jeans that we had bought for her, and she let me help her put them on. When she stood up in them, she looked down at her legs and smiled the biggest smile with the biggest dimples in her cheeks. She liked them!

She took my hand and led me back into the group room. We took a bunch of pictures of her group mates, and my mom and dad got to spend some more time with her, as this was their last visit with her before they started their trek home. Our coordinator explained to her that her "babushka and diedushka" were going home to wait for her. She was visibly sad about that, but still no words. We had decided to try to do something a little more interactive today instead of playing Polly Pockets, so we brought a ball with us. We took it outside and tried to get a little game going. Jacob instantly had a one man soccer game going, but our child would not take part. She just squished herself into my side and grabbed my hand. I had the camera and started taking pictures of Jacob and the other kids outside. I would show her the picture each time and she would smile at it - baby steps...

I decided to see if she would like to take a picture. She had been watching intently every time I did it, so I knew she would know how. I held the camera out to her and asked if she would like to try. She understood and took the camera. At first she just took a picture of me and then turned the camera around to show me. That was all it took. Before long, she was taking pictures of everyone in the family, especially of Daddy and Grandad. She would sneak a picture of them and then run over to show them the picture she took. She was grinning and laughing OUT LOUD the whole time. Before long, all of the other kids at the orphanage were outside, and she took picture after picture of everyone over and over. They all loved seeing what they looked like on camera, and the whole group had a great time! We will have quite the scrapbook of photos for her when she gets home. I don't think she left a single kid out of the pictures. She was actually running all over the compound shooting pictures, and at one point, I actually even heard her say something to one of her friends while she was laughing with such joy. God is good. I know that this time of not talking is going to pass. Hopefully it will pass while we are here, but if not, that is okay. She will warm up in her own time. The important part is that she is happy to be with us, and when asked if she wants to be in our family, she nods yes. The rest will come.

We had to say good-bye to my parents last night. They should be getting off the train right about now in Almaty - the worst part is over for their trip home, thank goodness! It was such a blessing to have them with us for the first part of our journey. We had no idea how much we were going to need them here for emotional support and to help with Jacob. They will be sorely missed. Poor Jacob woke up crying this morning just missing them. We haven't gone down to breakfast yet, and I am not sure how he is going to take the change. We eat at the same table in the same spots every day in the restaurant. Jacob is at the head of the table, with Daddy and Grandad on either side of him, and Mommy and Grannie on the ends. We will only have 3 at our table, and it is going to hit him hard. I am just so grateful for the time that they were here, and I know they have mixed feelings about leaving. We will be back with them and the rest of our so-missed family soon.

Today will mark the half-way mark of the bonding period. Once that time is over, we will be able to get a court date. Please pray that is scheduled quickly so that we can return home as soon as possible. We miss all of you, and can't wait to be home. Keep the e-mails and comments coming!!!

Melancholy Day

Yesterday was kind of a rough day for all of us. I think we have all kind of hit our wall for travel and emotion. I woke up really missing Amber and Mitchell, and just wishing I could give them both big hugs. The sun was shining, but we were all a little down. My parents are leaving tonight (on the dreaded Soviet train), and it is going to be very hard to not have the extra help with Jacob. They have been such a huge help to us, with everything from all of our "I.T." problems, to extra hands to hold Jacob, and just emotional support. I know that they have mixed feelings about leaving, but it will be good for them to get home and back to normal life there. We did get a chance to get our bearings about us around town, and took a long walk around the university village. We found the amusement park for Jacob, which I think we will be visiting every day from here on out, and we found the way to the big grocery store so we don't have to be so dependent on our coordinators, who have been so sweet.

We were definitely hoping to get a word out of our child, but still no luck. She is just so very scared, and we think that since she was "returned" a month after being adopted by a Kazakh family for not speaking Kazakh, that she is probably afraid of rejection. She still continues to cling to my hand and lead me all around the orphanage compound. We try to find little games to play with her. Jeff showed her how he throws Jacob up in the air to make him laugh. When he did this, she got a huge grin on her face and shook her head "yes" that she wanted "Papa" to do that to her, too. When he did it, she was grinning from ear to ear, but then she got scared again and didn't want anymore. The orphanage director actually came out to the "playground" (I use that term loosely) to check on our child. She asked her in Russian if she was okay - head nod yes. Then she asked her if she wanted to be in our family and come live with us - head nod yes again (phew). I know we are making progress, but in that situation, it is so hard to tell. She will really thrive once she figures out that we are not going to reject her. She loves to watch the video of Amber and Mitchell leading the tour around our house each day. She will have so much fun with them!

Every day, the reality of the orphanage life hits us harder. They do the best that they can with what they have, but really, they have nothing. The "playground" is hard dirt and rocks, and the play equipment is made of broken metal all around. The kids have learned to not sit down on the slide, as they would get cut. They stand up and kind of surf down it. Yesterday the kids were all playing in what looked basically like an actual sess pool filled with rain water from two days ago. It is a wonder they all don't have horrible diseases. The staff is so nice and caring, and they do keep the children and rooms as clean as they can, but there is not much you can do when the children have nothing but old glass vodka bottles to play with. One of the older boys spent a lot of time with us yesterday. It is sweet how the older kids seem to be very nurturing to the younger ones. His name was Sergei, and he looked like he was Mitchell's age and size. We were shocked to find out he is 15. He kept telling our child that she should start talking to us because she is so lucky to be getting adopted. He told us that wished he could be adopted, but he knows that he can't because his father is in prison for murder, and he still has other siblings in the orphanage. You cannot split up siblings, and there is no one to adopt a bunch of teenagers. He said, "Really - what do I need a father like that for?" Very, very heartbreaking.

Last night, our coordinators took us to a great restaurant that is in walking distance, too. It is a Georgian restuarant (as in Soviet Republic of Georgia). This was definitely what we needed after such a melancholy day. The restaurant was fantastic, and we had such a great time. The food came on huge shish kabobs (or swords, as Jacob said). We will definitely have to go back, as Jacob really wants to have "sword food" again!!! It was a nice send-off for my parents' last night here. Please pray for safe travels for my parents, as they have a very long journey to take again. They leave around 10 tonight on the night train, and then they will spend the day in Almaty tomorrow. Their plane leaves Almaty at 3 in the morning the next day, and they will be back in LA on Tue around noon.

Thank you again for all of the comments and e-mails. They have really kept us going!